Snap shot
Two long days, or rather a 1,300 kilometre drive from Cairo -- that's how long it took Mohamed El-Hebeishy to reach the Mist Oasis and further to Elba.
Located in Egypt's southeastern corner, Mountain Elba is the southernmost part of Egypt's Red Sea Mountains and at the same time the northernmost of the Ethiopian Highlands. The topographic southeastern bend of the mountain leads the northeastern wind to break on its top, leading to torrential rain. If not, the clouds then congregate, rounding its tip to form a shroud of mist, giving the mountain its mystical feel.
Elba National Park was declared Egypt's largest natural protectorate in May 1984. Named after the country's highest summit, the 1,437m Mountain Elba, it represents a transitional area between Afrotropical and palaearctic biogeographic realms, leading to a diversified array of flora that exceeds 500 species, including the threatened Dragon Tree ( Dracaena ombet).
The diversity is not restricted to the flora but extends to its fauna as well, with a wide array of species inhabiting the locality.
Elba means the White Mountain in To-Bedawi language, or as is more commonly known, Rotana. Rotana is a verbal language spoken by the Bisharins who are the local inhabitants of the region. Bisharins are pastoral nomadic tribes with a bloodline relation to the Beja Tribe. As they depend entirely on grazing, declining rain levels is their number one worry or rather threat. Through the recent decades, water scarcity has led to the death of large numbers of their herds; hence entire clans has descended to extreme poverty. This has been one of the main factors why Bisharins are abandoning their nomadic life and heading to commercial urban centres like Abu Ramad and Adeldeed.
Once great worriers -- conquerors through the ages have failed to make them bow -- Bisharins are now struggling in a drought area, on the verge of extinction.
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